By Chauntel Jacobs
This week’s recommendation is “Lemon Tart,” a murder mystery novel! Typically, in a murder mystery novel, the reader follows the perspective of the detectives or perhaps a family member of the victim. This novel has a fun twist: the case is investigated — and solved! — by the victim’s nosey 50-year-old neighbor!
Plot Review:
On a perfectly normal morning, Sadie Hoffman is busy doing what she does best: canning and minding her own business (of course!). Sadie’s attention is drawn away from the apples when multiple police cars pull up in front of her neighbor’s home. She considers it to be her civic duty to be the first to check in on the neighbor (and maybe pick up some gossip to share with her best friend). Upon arrival, she proudly assists the officers in accessing the home and giving insider information on the family that lives there. However, the game comes to an unexpected and horrible end when the investigators find a deceased woman in the backyard. Sadie’s young friend and neighbor, Anne Lemmon, has been found strangled to death.
Sadie is sent home after identifying the body as Anne’s, but her mind can’t stop racing. Where is Anne’s two-year-old son? Is he hurt? Who could have possibly wanted to kill Anne?
Using her sharp wit and keen observation skills, Sadie inserts herself into solving Anne’s murder . The police can solve this case (of course!), but Sadie knows she can get people talking; it only takes a plate of her mouthwatering desserts.
Why I recommend Lemon Tart
You’ll fall in love with Sadie’s spunk and tenacity to solve crimes. There are enough plot twists to keep the suspicion on multiple characters. This novel is certainly a “cozy up and read” type of novel, and not one that will keep you haunted at night. And as a fun little aside: each book contains tried and true recipes relating to the story from the author’s kitchen.
For other murder mystery recommendations, check these out!
After Goliath by Liz Adair
Times have been hard in Lincoln County, Nevada, since the mines closed, so Spider Latham feels lucky to land a steady job as deputy sheriff. Little does he know what challenges lie in store!
In The Lodger, Spider’s first week on the job finds him unearthing a body from a ravine and storing it as an unwelcome guest in the rafters of his barn. Foul play is evident, but who is the mystery victim? And what brought her to Spider’s stretch of territory?
A property dispute between two brothers takes a deadly turn in After Goliath. Money and fame may have bought prestige for country music star Rocky Ridge when he moves his family back to Panaca from Las Vegas, but they can’t keep him from being murdered. Can Spider find the killer before he becomes a victim himself?
Dreamland Burning by Jennifer Latham
When seventeen-year-old Rowan Chase finds a skeleton on her family’s property, she has no idea that investigating the brutal century-old murder will lead to a summer of painful discoveries about the present and the past.
Nearly one hundred years earlier, a misguided violent encounter propels seventeen-year-old Will Tillman into a racial firestorm. In a country rife with violence against blacks and a hometown segregated by Jim Crow, Will must make hard choices on a painful journey towards self discovery and face his inner demons in order to do what’s right the night Tulsa burns.
Through intricately interwoven alternating perspectives, Jennifer Latham’s lightning-paced page-turner brings the Tulsa race riot of 1921 to blazing life and raises important questions about the complex state of US race relations — both yesterday and today.
Stalking Jack the Ripper by Kerri Maniscalco
Seventeen year old Audrey Rose Wadsworth was born a lord’s daughter, with a life of wealth and privilege stretched out before her. But between the social teas and silk dress fittings, she leads a forbidden secret life. Against her stern father’s wishes and society’s expectations, Audrey often slips away to her uncle’s laboratory to study the gruesome practice of forensic medicine.
When her work on a string of savagely killed corpses drags Audrey into the investigation of a serial murderer, her search for answers brings her close to her own sheltered world. The story’s shocking twists and turns, augmented with real, sinister period photos, will make this dazzling, #1 New York Times bestselling debut from author Kerri Maniscalco impossible to forget!
Lemon Tart: A Murder Mystery Novel Recommendation was originally published in The Herald on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.
